What if Softimage died?

[Eugen]

I really hope the rumour isn't true... But if it is I hope Ad will sell it to another company, surely Ad must have had offers to buy it from them.

I'll open a bottle of Champagne if that really happened... this careless and hapless attitude of AD is pathetic (excluding the devs who actually get their hands dirty).

[Pooby]

I've been on the lookout for Softimage and recently found this forum.

Now, seeing this is the most popular thread, kind of makes me steer away to even try to get into Softimage. I tried pretty much all other packages out there, as of right now my ambitions is pretty much just a hobbyist playing around, with the hopes to eventually study or get to work in the 3d field.

I figured I would just choose one of the many packages and go with it... Now more than 6 months have passed and I am still in disarray, I find myself using one for a few weeks, then move on to the other, the reason is... The monopoly seen by Autodesk and them stretching their development over 3 different packages in the same field and the general feel that their 2 main packages are horribly bloated with bought and so-so integrated plugins. Bothers me greatly, even if it SHOULDN'T matter at this point.

Softimage is the only one, that doesn't seem to be bloated, and has a consistent UI, which I like. But the future for it is dark, apparently...

I gave Houdini a shot quite a few times, but the modeling in it doesn't feel right to me.

Best regards
//Morgan

I don't know what kind of artist you are, but if you want to just go where the work is, then Maya is obviously No1 choice and has been for a while. I always see Softimage for users that don't follow the mould and want to experiment and in so doing, I feel that it gives you more of an edge, whatever you end up working in.
I recently took on a guy to help me develop a character animation tool in XSI. He had previously never used xsi in his life. I took him on because he was brilliant, not because of what he used.(3ds max) and he absolutely loved using ICE.
XSI makes it easier for you to become brilliant, through experimentation and fast iteration of ideas.

[Bullit]

Make sure that without Softimage, Autodesk is not going to see my money anymore. All my money will be destinated to the developers that will continue to support Softimage with new improvements.

If the rumors are true pretty much that.

I figured I would just choose one of the many packages and go with it... Now more than 6 months have passed and I am still in disarray, I find myself using one for a few weeks, then move on to the other, the reason is... The monopoly seen by Autodesk and them stretching their development over 3 different packages in the same field and the general feel that their 2 main packages are horribly bloated with bought and so-so integrated plugins. Bothers me greatly, even if it SHOULDN'T matter at this point.

Softimage with ICE is probably besides Houdini the best application to learn the guts of 3D from an artist perspective. What you will learn to build in ICE will be good for every package.

[MauricioPC]

I've been on the lookout for Softimage and recently found this forum.

Now, seeing this is the most popular thread, kind of makes me steer away to even try to get into Softimage. I tried pretty much all other packages out there, as of right now my ambitions is pretty much just a hobbyist playing around, with the hopes to eventually study or get to work in the 3d field.

I figured I would just choose one of the many packages and go with it... Now more than 6 months have passed and I am still in disarray, I find myself using one for a few weeks, then move on to the other, the reason is... The monopoly seen by Autodesk and them stretching their development over 3 different packages in the same field and the general feel that their 2 main packages are horribly bloated with bought and so-so integrated plugins. Bothers me greatly, even if it SHOULDN'T matter at this point.

Softimage is the only one, that doesn't seem to be bloated, and has a consistent UI, which I like. But the future for it is dark, apparently...

I gave Houdini a shot quite a few times, but the modeling in it doesn't feel right to me.

Best regards
//Morgan

I don't know what kind of artist you are, but if you want to just go where the work is, then Maya is obviously No1 choice and has been for a while. I always see Softimage for users that don't follow the mould and want to experiment and in so doing, I feel that it gives you more of an edge, whatever you end up working in.
I recently took on a guy to help me develop a character animation tool in XSI. He had previously never used xsi in his life. I took him on because he was brilliant, not because of what he used.(3ds max) and he absolutely loved using ICE.
XSI makes it easier for you to become brilliant, through experimentation and fast iteration of ideas.

Hey Paul, would you say that for an artist that wants to open his own business for animation and books for children and vfx as hobby (destruction, fire, smoke), I could still use Softimage even though it gets canned?

I mean, The Peta commercial is so good that if I were able to do it, would be unbelivable. And your vídeo of The trees os amazing for environments.

[Pooby]

Well,as I said earlier, I'm about to start a new xsi studio this year.
The fact AD aren't keeping me in a stranglehold paying lots for pitiful upgrades each year is starting to seem like a blessing, the more I think about it.
As long as the final version is stable then I'm happy to just save the money and continue with my own development of xsi tools.

It's nice to know that I'll be forever on the latest version!

[cgcris]

Well,as I said earlier, I'm about to start a new xsi studio this year.
The fact AD aren't keeping me in a stranglehold paying lots for pitiful upgrades each year is starting to seem like a blessing, the more I think about it.
As long as the final version is stable then I'm happy to just save the money and continue with my own development of xsi tools.

It's nice to know that I'll be forever on the latest version!

This will work for a while, but what will you do when all the render engines and third parties stop developing for softimage?
You could get stuck on a very old version of Arnold that doesn't get updated anymore and you still need to pay maintenance for those licenses..

In the meantime the Maya peeps get the latest Redshift or whatever new tech comes out...

I am gutted by the way, and good luck with your Studio!

[Cacoman]

It's nice to know that I'll be forever on the latest version!

+1

As for devs, I believe that if new stuff is coming for a "death" Softimage, as I stated before. Good thing that my money will start going entirely to those devs.

Like Redshif for example. As long as the Redshift team supports Softimage I will continue to give them my money. As their render in this case is GPU based I will still have latest technology in a "death" Softimage.

Or Fuzz, or Mootzoid or Exocortex or Fabric Engine, etc.

I see no reason that even with a "death" Softimage they can't improve their plugins.

If the day comes when we are 128bit instead of 64bit processors. Maybe then the other sofwares will be able to handle even more larger scenes in less time.

After seeing what Whiskey Tree made for Elysum with Softimage, and the Mill with the Peta commercial.... I can stick with Softimage for a very, very long time.

Speaking of this, I don't believe that Whiskey Tree or The Mill will start running like crazy in the Maya direction if they are doing stuff like that, just becuase ADSK announces "Softimage is dead".

I think they will start looking for new developments made by third parties for Softimage like Redshift for example. Or build their owns like the amazing asset manager of Whiskey Tree demonstrated in the Athens video.

[Pooby]

Well,as I said earlier, I'm about to start a new xsi studio this year.
The fact AD aren't keeping me in a stranglehold paying lots for pitiful upgrades each year is starting to seem like a blessing, the more I think about it.
As long as the final version is stable then I'm happy to just save the money and continue with my own development of xsi tools.

It's nice to know that I'll be forever on the latest version!

This will work for a while, but what will you do when all the render engines and third parties stop developing for softimage?
You could get stuck on a very old version of Arnold that doesn't get updated anymore and you still need to pay maintenance for those licenses..

In the meantime the Maya peeps get the latest Redshift or whatever new tech comes out...

I am gutted by the way, and good luck with your Studio!

When I eventually can't render in xsi anymore, I'm pretty certain Arnold will be working perfectly with fabric engine which is what we will transition toward anyway.

[Bullit]

This will work for a while, but what will you do when all the render engines and third parties stop developing for softimage?

Anyone can change when that happens isn't it?
But should do only that when another thing surpasses it and not react in a sort pavlovian/panic way.

Even more, the fact that a user changes later gives him an advantage of a choice further in time.

Softimage works, and continue to be much better than others software, so why change?
Stay calm, bid your time, then when something sizable better appears change.
Maybe that application doesn't even exists yet.

The truth is that for an application to be better than Softimage any of the existing ones need to change in big way. I am not implying necessarily in Softimage way, but they need to find coherence and logic that they don't have.

Who knows the future, i'll not be even surprised if Autodesk spin off/sell Media and Entertainment division to entering into 3D printing/hardware business for example.
The fact is that Media and Entertainment doesn't belong to Autodesk culture.


If the rumors turn to be true the best way to piss off Autodesk is to continue to do great work in the software they tried to kill.

[cgcris]

There is obviously no need to panic, but it's a good idea to consider other options.

Personally not sure what will happen but I would guess 90% of the studio that use softimage will transition slowly to Maya.

Anyone can change when that happens isn't it?

I am a Generalist, and will take a bit of time before I am actually be a decent generalist on any other
package. Transition will need to be done, sooner or later.

[jamination]

Personally not sure what will happen but I would guess 90% of the studio that use softimage will transition slowly to Maya.

I am sure that this is the overall feeling with the powers to be at autodesk as well.

[Cacoman]

I remember when ADSK killed Combustion. Although I use now Nuke and AfterEffects, I am still using it. And it works like a charm!

If only ADSK should open the FX tree to support OFX, and make some minor improvements to it It would make a strong Nuke competitor.

Imagine a camera tracker inside the FX tree that immediatly will take that solution to the defualt workspace of Softimage, and the geo, lights and animation back into a 3D view in the FX tree. Grabbing and precomping all your passes.

But... no... Maya, Maya, 3D Max, Maya... pfff. What a waiste and lack of vision.

[MauricioPC]

I remember when ADSK killed Combustion. Although I use now Nuke and AfterEffects, I am still using it. And it works like a charm!

If only ADSK should open the FX tree to support OFX, and make some minor improvements to it It would make a strong Nuke competitor.

Imagine a camera tracker inside the FX tree that immediatly will take that solution to the defualt workspace of Softimage, and the geo, lights and animation back into a 3D view in the FX tree. Grabbing and precomping all your passes.

But... no... Maya, Maya, 3D Max, Maya... pfff. What a waiste and lack of vision.

Actually is more Maya, Maya, Maya. Luceric said something and after he edited ... but he said something similar to: "If it were a 3ds Max LT, we know it would sell like pancakes, so in the short run, it would get lots of money. But in the long run, it's better to have all using Maya for games". Soooo ... Autodesk focus is to have Maya as the tool of choice for Games, Film and Broadcast.

That leaves 3ds Max for what? CAD and only CAD. That and the amazing plugins that are already transitioning to Maya. 3ds Max as a generalist tool, in my view, given what AD is doing with Softimage, won't evolve much anymore.

Thanks for the info Pooby. I'll surely consider that. If I, in the future, will need to change, Houdini and Fabric would be the first option and Modo the third.

[EricTRocks]

Two opinions I'll offer:

1. Autodesk won't sell Softimage. They don't sell software they've bought. They dev it, maintain it, kill it. End of story.

2. Don't build a studio on XSI. Even if you have it for a few years, there will be bugs, there will be things you can't work around and there will be new formats, plug-ins, etc that you'll need that you won't be able to use. Even if Fabric Engine or the like keeps developing itself, there are bugs that need to get fixed in Softimage to support these 3rd party tools. You won't have any recourse. Go to the next best thing that you can work with and be happy with. For many the only option is Maya. Others Houdini. If you build a new studio on Softimage and don't put a sufficient effort into building your tools to be DCC agnostic, and portable to both Softimage and Maya (or whatever) you're going to have a rough time once you can't use Softimage any more. There is going to be a time when that happens. Do yourself a favor and just get on with the transition.

In closing, personally I've already been cross training for a while back over to the Maya side since rigging and animation only have one logical and serious option here being Maya. I want to continue to work and be valuable in production. I know it's rough but you need to extract yourself from being just a Softimage user and being a 3D artist, animator, TD, etc. Don't tie yourself to only one piece of software. If you do, you're not going to find much work.

My 2 cents of opinion.

[punchatz]

Eric is right... Even though I am preparing videos of a particular AD executive with devil horns tracked to their head (keeping it for myself and close friends for right now)... And the last product manager repeating...the future of softimage is bright...the future of softimage is bright...the future of softimage is bright...the future of softimage is bright...the future of softimage is bright... even I am that amazingly pissed right now, the only sane thing to do is weigh our options. And Maya might be the only sane one. I hope for the love of god there are some transition tutorials made in a jiffy.

While I despise AD right this second (well most of the time), Maya is the most viable option ATM. Our studio is has been a softimage house for 20 years. It will take us some time to transition, but there just is not another viable option RIGHT now for character animation. I am sure I will not like it in many ways, I hope I am pleasantly surprised ..paint effects always looked awesome ... but for god sake at least I will have we decent view port:(

[angus_davidson]

I remember when ADSK killed Combustion. Although I use now Nuke and AfterEffects, I am still using it. And it works like a charm!

If only ADSK should open the FX tree to support OFX, and make some minor improvements to it It would make a strong Nuke competitor.

Imagine a camera tracker inside the FX tree that immediatly will take that solution to the defualt workspace of Softimage, and the geo, lights and animation back into a 3D view in the FX tree. Grabbing and precomping all your passes.

But... no... Maya, Maya, 3D Max, Maya... pfff. What a waiste and lack of vision.

We are in a position where we are being royally screwed by Adobe over only providing our licences 4 weeks after the start of term. We have conducted an audit of whats really needed and for compositing everything we have done over the last few years (mainly in after effects) could easily have been done in the FX tree. As for Photoshop we only used that for textures, and we can easily do that with paint.net / pixelmator depending on platform. Apart from one staff member who is a well know photographer no one actually needs the adobe products. Especially when it take 30% of the budget we have for each year.